Day 4: Minneapolis

High point of the day: My husband is a river scientist and so this trip down the Mississippi has special meaning for him. While I’m on the hunt for historic buildings and pie shops, he’s more interested in dams, locks, fish ladders and geological formations. Because of him we received a private tour of the new Outdoor Stream Lab (pictured below) at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory right on the Mississippi River. Researchers from all over the world conduct experiments on this re-creation of a stream that pulls water from the Mississippi. It’s the only lab of this sort in the world, and even I, the non-scientist, find it interesting.

Sound bite of the day: Mary Presnail, 25, is one of the many student researchers at the Outdoor Stream Lab. Here she offers up a rather technical, though impressive, description of the research she’s conducting at the lab.

Low point of the day: After our tour of the lab, we planned to walk along the Mississippi River and go for a swim at Lake Harriet Southeast Beach. But dark clouds suddenly swoop over the city and it begins to rain. The kids are disappointed. So we opt for an indoor attraction, the Guthrie Theater, an architectural marvel rising above the Mississippi. New York Times writer Nicolai Ouroussoff called it a “a Modernist heaven on a former industrial strip along the riverfront.

Quote of the day: “This place is cool,” says my 4-year-old son, as we’re touring the Guthrie. “Maybe we could live here.”

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